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Saturday, August 23, 2008

Disappointed with Ikea

We've been unable to finish unpacking because I made the mistake of ordering our Ikea bookshelf unit online. We do have a local Ikea, but we don't have a truck. So we would need to rent a pickup if we were to go to the store and buy the whole unit in person. At the time that I placed the order, we were having that awful heat wave and Mike and I couldn't stomach the idea of hauling all those parts up the stairs. So I placed the order online.

I guess my first true disappointment was when I saw what I considered to be exorbitant shipping costs. But it was so hot, so I somewhat reluctantly proceeded with the order.

That was a week and a half ago. My emailed order confirmation has no reference to an expected date of arrival. I only recall that the website said that someone would call me to arrange delivery.

Today I called the company and waited on hold for 30 minutes. When I said, "Where's my stuff?" they told me it would be at least another week, and possibly a week and a half, before I would be called to arrange for delivery. I told the operator that I had no idea it was going to take this long and I asked about my options for cancelling. She said I could cancel my order but I would forfeit the huge shipping charge. So I did not cancel. She sounded apologetic and told me that all Ikea orders take 2-3 weeks.

I went back on to their website as if to place another order. I went all the way through the process to the last checkout screen, and at no time do they disclose that the order will take 2-3 weeks. In fact, the site gives what seems to be an estimated shipping date and then says that the delivery company will call within 5-7 days from that date. Doing quick math in my head, the date that the operator quoted me will FAR exceed 5-7 days from my order's estimated ship date of 8/18/08, as it has already been 5 days.

I guess this surprises me because we had our sofa delivered from Ikea when we lived in Montrose, and I don't remember having to wait more than a few days.

I'm holding out a small hope that the operator can not count days, and that someone will call me on Monday or Tuesday and tell me my stuff is here.